Omeros

          Derek Walcott’s Omeros is a contemporary epic poem that follows the stories of numerous characters as they attempt to evolve alongside their island home of St. Lucia.  However, the piece also moves characters between place and time in an intricate attempt to show the interconnectivity of the character’s situations, like the modernization of the island and the slave trade of long ago.  Walcott also incorporates himself into the piece in order to give a unique point of view into the lives of the characters that he both interacts with and has created.  Because of the complexities that Walcott has created, there are obviously some questions that I have that have been left unanswered (to me at least).  Here, I am now going to merely list a few of these questions in hopes that they can be discussed in the future and some light can be shed onto their ambiguities.

·         If Omeros is supposed to follow an epic tradition, where can we see supernatural involvement as is synonymous with the form laid out in the Greco-Roman style?

·         What is the overarching theme of Walcott’s piece?  What was Walcott’s purpose in writing Omeros?

·         Are we expected to see each individual palimpsest drawn to a conclusion?  Or are we supposed to accept that not each individual story concludes entirely at the expense of discovering an overlying theme (which I also do not understand)?

·         What purpose does the killing of Hector and Maud play in the piece?  Is it merely as a tool of conveying the despair of those close to them?